Yair Netanyahu's Falklands comments spark friction with British right-wing

Comments by Yair Netanyahu, the son of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, backing Argentina’s claim to the British-controlled Falkland Islands have caused an unlikely row with Britain’s right wing – one of the United Kingdom’s last reliable pro-Israel groups.

The younger Netanyahu waded into the longrunning territorial dispute over the South Atlantic archipelago last week, writing on X in Spanish: “The Falkland Islands belong to Argentina.”

Britain and Argentina fought a war over the islands in 1982 and continue to dispute their sovereignty.

In follow-up posts, he said that Israel should support Argentina’s claim because the Argentinian government, under far-right President Javier Milei, is more friendly to Israel.

He accused the UK of “hypocrisy and hostility towards Israel with their recognition of ‘Palestine’”, as well as of perpetuating “antisemitism” and “blood libels”.

His comments came days before United States President Donald Trump, also a close ally of Milei, said the US was reviewing its stance on the Falklands.

While Yair Netanyahu’s remarks appeared intended as a shot at the UK’s Labour government, which includes both centre-left and left-wing politicians, they have also angered right-wing British figures who are typically pro-Israel.

Rupert Lowe, head of the far-right Restore Britain party, responded directly to him on X, saying that the Falklands would “remain” British and that a UK government led by his party would “go to war if necessary to ensure it”.

“You have enough problems to be focusing on in Israel”, Lowe responded, while calling on the Israeli government to clarify its position on the Falklands.

According to YouGov, just 3 percent of people polled would vote for Restore if a general election were held tomorrow.

Sir Conor Burns, a former MP with Britain’s Conservative Party, called Yair Netanyahu’s comments “stupid” and warned they would be “damaging to Israel’s cause on the [British] right”.

Far-right British activist Tommy Robinson, formerly called Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a vocal backer of Israel, shared a post on X calling British sovereignty over the Falklands a “true fact”, without mentioning the son of the Israeli premier.

Rob Geist Pinfold, a lecturer on security studies at King’s College London, said the remarks were the latest example of him causing “consternation amongst Israel’s self-declared friends in Europe.”

“Yair Netanyahu has antagonised the constituency in Britain most inclined to defend Israel,” Geist Pinfold told Al Jazeera.

While not an Israeli government official, Geist Pinfold said that he “is alleged to have far more de facto power behind the scenes thanks to Benjamin Netanyahu’s increasingly autocratic style of leadership”.

James Vaughan, lecturer in international history at Aberystwyth University, said that remarks could alienate some on the British right, though it is not a united bloc.

While Britain’s mainstream right-wing movements are generally pro-Israel, elements of Britain’s “extreme right” have historically been an “anti-Israeli force in British politics,” Vaughan told Al Jazeera, adding that there are signs of Restore Britain “reverting to older, anti-Semitic traditions”.

Last year, Restore Britain’s Lowe said of a camera that would film him, “In days gone by you’d call it a Jewish camera, but that would be politically incorrect. Because it’s so small.” He has also called for kosher – as well as halal – meat to be banned. He has rejected accusations of anti-Semitism.

No Israeli government official has publicly endorsed Yair Netanyahu’s position on the Falklands.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has, however, previously invoked the islands while defending Israel’s illegal settlement policy in the occupied West Bank.

During a United Nations Security Council debate in February, Saar said that Israeli settlements in the West Bank were located “in the cradle of our own civilisation”, contrasting them with the Falklands.

“It is our country; it’s not 13,000 kilometres away from our country, like the Falkland Islands,” said Saar, addressing then-British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper. “The Argentinians call it the Malvinas Islands – a dispute you haven’t solved with Argentina until today.”

Vaughan pointed out that the Falklands have long been a “thorny issue in UK-Israel relations”, including in the early 1980s, due to Israeli arms sales to Argentina.

“The fact that the current Israeli government is once again ‘playing the Falklands card’ is of little consequence in and of itself and probably tells us more about the current state of friendly relations between Israel and Argentina than anything else,” Vaughan told Al Jazeera.

Israeli officials have brought up other territorial issues when responding to criticism over Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land.

On July 31, as Spanish authorities faced a wave of people rushing into its territory of Ceuta over the Moroccan border, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon goaded Spain over its control of the African enclave.

“Maybe before it continues lecturing us, it’s time it explained to the world why it [Spain] still maintains colonial enclaves in Africa,” Danon wrote in a post on X.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has noted that Israel is carrying out a genocide in Gaza, and Madrid has imposed sweeping measures, including a total arms embargo, against Israel.

Like the UK and other European countries, Spain also recognises Palestinian statehood.

Despite traditionally strong ties, there are signs of tension between Israel and Britain under Labour, which took power in 2024.

Under former Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the UK paused free-trade talks with Israel and suspended some arms export licences. The UK has also imposed sanctions on far-right Israeli cabinet members Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.

The UK’s new leader, Andy Burnham, is currently weighing further measures relating to illegal Israeli settlements.

Israeli officials have derided the UK as relations deteriorate. Prime Minister Netanyahu recently referred to the UK as the “Islamic Republic of Britain”.

Vaughan said that the re-emergence of the Falklands issue is “indicative of underlying UK-Israeli tensions that are obviously rooted more in fundamental disagreements about Gaza, the West Bank and wider Middle Eastern conflicts”.